


To Bring Back the Fire in Her Eyes

by hotguyhawkeye



Series: Reader/Peter: Better Together [2]
Category: Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)
Genre: Cuddling, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Fluff, Pre-Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-16
Updated: 2017-07-16
Packaged: 2018-12-02 17:56:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,348
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11514498
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hotguyhawkeye/pseuds/hotguyhawkeye
Summary: You knew Flash was going to retaliate for your fast comment - you just didn't think it would be this juvenile, or that it would get to you so much. Luckily, Peter finds you before you beat yourself up too much.





	To Bring Back the Fire in Her Eyes

**Author's Note:**

> A much requested continuation of "Sometimes, the Hat Works!" Unbeta'd per usual, mistakes are my own. Title from "She Used To Be Mine" from Waitress: the Musical.

After going to the Indiana Jones marathon and exhibit with Ned and Peter, you began to spend more and more time with the duo, both during and outside of school. Most days, you sat with them at lunch, sitting in contented silence as they bickered over whatever thing Ned brought up this time; on rare occasion, it was you bickering with one of them. You hadn't forgotten the contents of Ned's note left in your locker, and you tried to make a point to flirt with Ned just as much as Peter, if only so they'd both get cheering up. (Realistically, you knew it was so that neither Peter nor Ned would realize the flirting with Peter was real. You weren't quite ready for that yet, and if even a fraction of the rumors about Peter and Liz were true, neither was he. You were more than happy to just be around to boost morale, and maybe make a few good friends in the meanwhile.)

They tried to talk you into joining decathlon with them, since you were in the Top 10 in your class, and there was a vacancy left by Liz, but truth be told, you weren't ready for that amount of attention from your peers. After the Flash incident that set these friendships on their way, far too many people had learned your name, and were starting to notice other things about you. You shook Ned and Peter off with an excuse about having to rush home most days to look after your siblings, and how the babysitter was always unavailable on the days decathlon had practice. Ned nodded, and took your fib at face value, but Peter had that look of concentration he often wore when looking at you, and for a moment you thought he was going to call your bluff. Luckily, he didn't.

Of course, since this was _you_ and _your_ luck, the lie only lasted so long before you were caught. It had been about three weeks since you had the insane idea to fuck with the status quo by sticking up to Flash Thompson, and you naively thought the lack of retaliation this late in the game meant you were safe. People still looked at you funny, and sometimes whispered or stopped whispering when you came into a room, but you just assumed that was the whole realizing-you-even-existed thing still playing itself out. It wasn't until you found yourself in the second floor girls' room next to the AV Club's meeting room that you realized they were all staring and whispering for a completely different reason.

There, scrawled on a wall, was a flurry of rumors about you, precisely none of which were true, and all of which stank of Flash and his mob of minions. The rumors ranged from you being bitter that Flash turned you down to you actually having slept with him and even included one saying _you_ were why Peter left Liz at the dance, and that you had hooked up with him in the empty parking lot. As rumors went, they weren't the _most_ malicious you'd seen, but it still crushed a piece of your heart, knowing complete strangers hated you enough to do this, and that even more of them didn't care about your existence to even try and figure out if they were lies. Everyone just accepted them, spread them, and added to them. It was worse than being unintentionally invisible - you were intentionally persecuted.

You quickly fled the bathroom, and grabbed the hall pass with shaking hands, trying to shake the tears away before they could fully form in your eyes. If you went back to class with red eyes, everyone would know you had seen the writing, and the whispers would probably get worse; you could already hear Flash whispering to his cronies, _"If none of it's true, then why is she crying?"_

Upon exiting the bathroom, head pointed directly toward the floor, you bumped into something solid and warm; hands grasped your shoulders to keep you from falling, and before you could even apologize, they were laughing, and with a start, you realized it was Peter.

"You know, if you wanted a hug, you could just ask! You don't have to go bumping into me so I'll grab you to steady you," he said, laughter still evident in his voice. When you didn't laugh, or even look up at your friend, he tightened his grip almost imperceptibly. "Hey," he murmured, gently cupping your face and tilting it up to his view, "what's going on? You're trembling and…are you, uh, are you crying?"

As if on cue, the need to sniffle was impossible to resist, and the second the sound left you, Peter's arms wrapped around your shoulders tightly. As if of their own accord, your arms wound around his waist, and you let the tears you'd been fighting start to fall as Peter awkwardly rubbed his hand up and down your back.

"Talk to me, what's going on?" he whispered into your hair, resting his cheek on the top of your head.

Quietly, you told him everything; things he didn't know about your moving to Manhattan and enrolling at Midtown, about how your invisibility at school was unintentional at first but then it hurt less to make yourself unavailable than to know you were unwanted, and about all of the things people were making up about you all because you got tired of hearing Flash be rude to people like he owned the world. As it all spilled out, you and Peter had slid down against the wall, and by the end, you were practically sitting in his lap, your head on his shoulder as you hiccuped your way through the story. His arms never dropped from where they were wrapped around you, and as you fell into silence, he squeezed you closer.

"This is all my fault," he finally said, his voice strained.

You lifted your head from his shoulder and looked him in the eye for the first time since you started talking, a stern look on your face. "Peter Parker, don't you dare take the blame for this. If anyone is to blame, it's Flash and his mob; I knew the risks of standing up to him. I just didn't think…I never thought it would all hit at once. And they're not even that mean of rumors, really. I'm just. Overreacting."

"Okay, if I can't take the blame, you can't say you're overreacting," Peter said, smiling at you fondly when he noticed your lips threatening to quirk up. "People are mostly assholes, especially in New York. But me and Ned? We'll at least try really hard to not be assholes. And we like you hanging out with us, so please don't let this stupid stuff stop you from being amazing. Because, uh, you are. Amazing, I mean." By the end of his speech, there was a significant blush on his face, and he wasn't quite making eye contact anymore.

Reluctantly, you climbed out of his lap and stood up, offering him a hand to pull him up as well; when he finally got to his feet, absurdly close to you, you bounced up onto your toes and pressed a quick kiss to his cheek. "Thanks, Peter," you whispered before looping your arm through his like you had the first time you'd hung out with him and Ned. "Any chance it's not too late to take you up on joining decathlon?" 

The smile directed your way was nothing short of dazzling, and he shook his head, tugging you toward your class, stopping in front of the door. "Meet me at my locker after seventh, and I'll introduce you to the team. We've been saving a spot for you, just in case." As you made to enter your classroom, you looked back at him right as he glanced over his shoulder; you winked at him and smiled to yourself as you noted the pink of his cheeks as he grinned back at you. Invisibility was officially overrated.

**Author's Note:**

> Again, if a continuation is desired, let me know! I'm clearly having a good time writing it.


End file.
